In a WhatsApp text conversation this week, we asked Jane Austen — yes, the 19th-century British author — how she felt about Mr. Darcy, a character from one of her most famous works, “Pride and Prejudice.” After a few seconds, Ms. Austen responded. “Ah, Mr. Darcy. Everyone remembers him as one of my characters,” she […]
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To Bring Socializing Back to Social Networks, Apps Try A.I. Imagery
Myuri Thiruna, a freelance photographer in Toronto, used to post frequently on Instagram and discuss photography with other users. But she said she had stopped two years ago, feeling “drained” by the demands of social media and the pursuit of followers and trends. Then in July, Ms. Thiruna discovered Can of Soup, a new invitation-only […]
Read MoreThe Secret Ingredient of ChatGPT Is Human Advice
Last November, the company behind Facebook released a chatbot called Galactica. After a torrent of complaints that the bot made up historical events and spewed other nonsense, Meta removed it from the internet. Two weeks later, the San Francisco start-up OpenAI released a chatbot called ChatGPT. It was a worldwide sensation. Both bots were powered […]
Read MoreTech Companies in Silicon Valley Can’t Keep Ignoring Seniors
And then there are some ideas farther afield. A start-up called MyndVR is using virtual reality to provide a sense of liberation to older people. Your body may be unable to travel, but through V.R., you might cross off destinations on your bucket list. The company argues that V.R. could also be therapeutic — that […]
Read MoreThe Technology Facebook and Google Didn’t Dare Release
One afternoon in early 2017, at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., an engineer named Tommer Leyvand sat in a conference room with a smartphone standing on the brim of his baseball cap. Rubber bands helped anchor it in place with the camera facing out. The absurd hat-phone, a particularly uncool version of the future, […]
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